Characters:
Person 1:- #3.7
Person 2:- #3.7
Person 1: What should I write about?
Person 2: I don’t know!!!
Person 1: It’s supposed to be about growing up Muslim in America.
Person 2: Oh wow! That’s hard to think about.
Person 1: Ya I know.
Person 2: Why not write about dealing with friends?
Person 1: Nah…Noting special about it. I go to an Islamic school. How hard can that be?
Person 2: Oh, ya. I remember. What about Qur’an?
Person 1: Once upon a time, I read Qur’an at night… The end!!!
Person 2: Oh I see. How many pages do you read at night anyway?
Person 1: 2 pages. Sometimes more if I want.
Person 2: Noting special there. What about fasting.
Person 1: I don’t think there is anything special about fasting. You just not eat or drink from dawn until dusk. And you have to control yourself or the fasting will not get you anything.
Person 2: Well that’s something.
Person 1: What?
Person 2: Controlling yourself in Ramadhan and other months as well.
Person 1: Oh. Maybe that might work but still, I don’t think I can make it into a page.
Person 2: Really. This conversation is filling up a page.
Person 1: What?! You are typing up this conversation?
Person 2: Ya!
Person 1: Oh. Ok. I’ll write about fasting…I guess.
Person 2: That’s the spirit!!
Person 1: Wow…how’d you do that smiley face.
Person 2: You just press this : and this ).
Person 1: Oh, ok. That’s sort of neat.
Person 2: So, are you going to write?
Person 1: Nah. Anymore ideas?
Person 2: Hijab?
Person 1: No. I wore it since I was little so it’s not something I did in America.
Person 2: Come on. You have to write about something.
Person 1: Ya. So give me ideas.
Person 2: Music?
Person 1: Huh? What about music?
Person 2: I don’t know. You can talk about avoiding songs with bad contents.
Person 1: Haha. Weird idea. What bad contents. Like bad words?
Person 2: Ya. What about movies and shows with bad contents?
Person 1: I don’t think sane people will want to watch nude people. So disgusting!!!
Person 2: Never mind. Come on I’m out of ideas.
Person 1: OH OH. What about eating halal foods?
Person 2: Ok. That can work.
Person 1: So should I write about eating choosing foods carefully?
Person 2: Ya that’s good.
Person 1: The thing is my mom chooses my food, not me.
Person 2: Oh. What about the foods that your friends give you?
Person 1: My mom tells me what’s haram and halal so I just avoid foods from my friends that my parents said is haram.
Person 2: Keep on going.
Person 1: And then I tell my friends what is haram. Even though they don’t listen sometimes, I just tell them. Also I don’t let them touch me if they eat something haram until they wash their hands. Of course I don’t tell them that, I just tell myself to not let them touch me.
Person 2: Oh. I see.
Person 1: See. There is nothing for me to write about.
Person 2: Well, little bits add up and now I collected some info on what you do.
Person 1: Oh that’s nice. But that’s still not enough.
Person 2: Well just keep on going. Write about anything else you want about even if it’s not in order, just write and let your ideas flow. I’ll stay online to read your idea.
Person 1: Ok.
Person 2: Well, so, start.
Person 1: Ok. Here’s what I came up with:
For me, being a Muslim in America has been nothing but blah. There’s never any challenge…at all!!! No one ever asked me about being a Muslim or anything other than my parents checking my answer. It’s so boring, yet Alhamdulillah it’s easy.
My parents taught me how to pray when I was three. I remember asking my guy cousin why he didn’t wear hijab while he prayed, he answered, “I don’t know?” Anyway, they kept on encouraging me to pray even before I was seven. I wouldn’t pray Fajr on time but I was reminded after I woke up. But when I was seven, they pushed a little harder. They let me sleep through some Fajr, but they tried to wake me up. When I was ten, they said they would pinch me if I don’t pray (they don’t believe in hitting), but they didn’t have to, Alhamdulillah. Also, since I go to an Islamic school praying Dhuhr was never hard.
When I was little I used to always spit out my food so fasting was not that hard. There is an exception though, sahur. My mom used to wake me up 1 ½ before Fajr so I could finish and sometimes I still didn’t finish.
I think they started teaching about fasting when I was five. They would let me fast half a day if I get weak. I guess that’s not a really good idea because I would just eat from Asr until Maghrib doesn’t really feel like fasting.
When I was seven and eight, sometimes when I get hungry, I’ll confess, I would take one or two pieces of cereal and say, “Ya Allah. I’m still a child. Forgive me for doing this but I just am too hungry and weak to continue. Bismillah,” or something similar and then I would eat it and just continue the day.
I started fasting the whole Ramadhan when I was nine, I think, didn’t miss taraweeh when I was ten, finished the whole Qur’an in Ramadhan when I was eleven, and did Sunnah fasting in Shawwal when I was eleven or twelve But the method my parents used to get me to do it was a chart. If the chart was good, there was money ready. This encouraged me to fast. But when I was ten, I told my parents that now I’m not going to fast, or pray taraweeh, or read Qur’an for money, I have to do it for Allah only.
And I’m used to people eating in front of me when I’m fasting because I have two younger brother and sometimes my youngest sister who don’t really notice, so I got used to it and I don’t care anymore.
My mother put the hijab on me when I was so little I can’t remember. She never forced me. All she did was put it on me and let me do whatever I wanted with it on my head. The reason I didn’t take it off was because she wore one too and you know how little kids just love to copy their parents. So wearing a hijab was shaped into me and I wore hijab full time when I was seven. I never had to go through the problem of, “I’ll wear it when I’m 16 or so” which a lot of girls had to go through.
So? What do you think?
Person 2: It’s ok. So why not just send that in.
Person 1: You know what? I’ll just send this whole conversation in. It’s so neat.
Person 2: Ok.
No comments:
Post a Comment